After months of spending time indoors (hello, quarantine 2020), I wanted to share some fun outdoor activities I’ve been doing with my boys to get them some fresh air and learning at the same time! There are even some free printables further down in the post for you to use with your students or kids at home.

Outdoor activity #1

The first game I want to share is called “Roll to Win.” I shared the directions on how to play down in the video below so you can see the game in action with my own boys:

This game is great for math practice and all you really need is some sort of ball to roll and a little bit of outdoor space! Essentially, all you need to do is spread out some number cards (about 10 or so of them) on the grass/pavement/area like below. We added some dinosaurs to the cards because it was a bit windy and the paper would’ve blown away.

I also added dots to these cards to help my own boys (pre-K) when they are adding. To play, kids will simply stand at a starting spot and roll their ball 3 times. If they’re ball rolls over one of the cards, they can collect that card. If they don’t roll over a number, they don’t do anything! At the end of their three turns, they’ll add up the cards they collected to see who got the higher sum. That is the winner!

This game is a lot of fun because as students become more familiar with how to play, they’ll likely scope out the larger numbers and try to get their ball to roll over that number so they can collect it! I also share a few ways to differentiate the game in the video above!

Outdoors + math + movement = win, win, win!

Outdoor activity #2

I also shared another video recently with some fun ways to get students outdoors and moving, but not necessarily with a specific academic skill in mind. More to just have them outside and having fun. You can watch my suggestions in the video below:

In the short video above, I share suggestions showing how kids can make their own obstacle courses, I also share some of my favorite toys/tools to use with theses obstacle courses, like these indoor/outdoor balance stepping stones:

Another fun thing my kids love doing outside are scavenger hunts! I went ahead and made a bunch of free templates you can use with your kids below. Just click the image below to grab your free scavenger hunts:

Some of my favorite ways to get kids exploring outside are through nature scavenger hunts, 5 senses scavenger hunts, color scavenger hunts, and texture scavenger hunts! I also included an editable one so you can make on based on your own environment.

Be sure to watch the videos above to get some fun ideas for having your children play outside this spring/summer!